Woolwich Arsenal vs London – the results

By Tony Attwood

Woolwich Arsenal are often called London’s first professional team. Technically at the start they were Kent’s first pro-team, but people linked Woolwich Arsenal with London and they were the first professional team in the south.

But after joining the Football League for the 1893/4 season, other teams decided to try and get in on the act, noticeably…

Chelsea elected to division II 1905/6

Clapton Orient elected to division II 1905/6

Fulham elected to division II 1907/8

Tottenham Hotspur elected to division II 1908/9

And that is how it remained until after the first world war when West Ham joined the second division for the 1919/20 season.

London clubs did not flourish in the Football League, which remained dominated by northern sides both numerically and in terms of success. The four teams noted above were the representatives of London, Kent and Middlesex during the lifetime of Woolwich Arsenal.

Here’s what happened during the period

1905/6 – Woolwich Arsenal Division I (no other local teams in the division. Chelsea and Clapton Orient played the first London derby in the Football League.)

*Our thinking now is that this was the first game played as The Arsenal, and that Woolwich Arsenal had concluded its affairs the game before – although in many regards this is a technicality – it was the same club and the same team. Certainly the 1914/15 season was played as The Arsenal.

It is quite clear from the attendances that these games were considered the original local derbies for the south east, and the crowds were much higher than for other games. For the first two seasons of the games against Chelsea Woolwich Arsenal were getting crowds of around 10,000 to 15,000 for most games.

Crowds were poor in the final season as this season was played almost totally after the declaration of war against Germany.

Overall I make the record between the foundation of the club and the end of football because of hostilities as Woolwich Arsenal won 10, lost 8 and drew 6 against the other teams in the area.

These figures of course ignore FA cup matches where Arsenal did have a number of games against other teams from the area including Croydon Common, Millwall, West Ham, Fulham, Brentford, Luton, Watford…